---
title: Don't be a dope! Handle equipment right!
url: https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/joe-dope-headspace-1941/
description: 'Equipment-care cartoon for soldiers with a four-line rhyme about setting headspace by guess: a cartoon soldier, Joe Dope.'
section: Collection
---

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2. [Collection](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/)
3. Don't be a dope! Handle equipment right!

**Content note:** Background German soldiers are drawn as exaggerated caricatures; a machine gun has burst open beside a distressed soldier. This object is shown as it was published. [Why](https://propagandaarchive.org/about/#as-it-was)

[![Don't be a dope! Handle equipment right!, 1941 US poster: Equipment-care cartoon for soldiers with a four-line rhyme about](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/joe-dope-headspace-1941.jpg)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/joe-dope-headspace-1941.jpg)

# Don't be a dope! Handle equipment right!

Equipment-care cartoon for soldiers with a four-line rhyme about setting headspace by guess: a cartoon soldier, Joe Dope, sits beside a wrecked machine gun while a sergeant holds his head. 'Don't be a dope!' is name-calling aimed at the careless soldier, softened by humour.

## Propaganda techniques used in this poster

[Name-calling](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/name-calling/)

## Text on the object

Original (English) · read from the image, not independently checked

```
HEADSPACE to Joe Dope was a riddle,
An adjustment with which he could fiddle.
He set it by guess-- Gun & Joe are a mess,
For the cartridge blew up in the middle.
Don't be a dope!
HANDLE EQUIPMENT RIGHT !
[signature: W/O Will Eisner]
[imprint:] P.M.U. HOLABIRD ORDNANCE DEPOT 20 ORDNANCE DEPARTMENT U.S. ARMY
```

[← Joe Dope is a regular ace at 'cleaning' that rifle apace](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/joe-dope-cleaning-rifle-sand-1941/) [A maxim Joe Dope just pooh poohs is that one should be kind to a fuze →](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/joe-dope-kind-to-a-fuze-1941/)

## More propaganda examples that use the same techniques

- [Behistun (Bisotun) rock relief and trilingual inscription of Darius I: the king, two attendants and the bound rebel leaders beneath the winged figure of Ahuramazda](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/behistun-relief-darius-and-rebels-521bce/) (Achaemenid Empire · 0000 · Card stacking, Name-calling, Testimonial). Content note: Shows bound captives before the king, and the inscription records the mutilation and public execution of rebel leaders, as the king's own account.
- [Passional Christi und Antichristi: the emperor kisses the pope's foot (leaf 'Antichristus')](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/passional-christi-antichristi-emperor-kisses-pope-1521/) (Electoral Saxony · 1521 · Name-calling, Card stacking)
- [Anacoana fut pendue sans raison (engraving in Le miroir de la cruelle et horrible tyrannie espagnole)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/anacoana-hanged-miroir-tyrannie-espagnole-1620/) (Dutch Republic · 1620 · Fear appeal, Name-calling). Content note: Engraving of a hanged, bare-breasted Taino woman, burning huts and people being killed by Spanish soldiers.
- [Ondersoeckt de Geesten, ofse van den Duyvel syn, of niet (the De Witt brothers as devils)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/ondersoeckt-de-geesten-de-witt-devils-1672/) (Dutch Republic · 1672 · Scapegoating, Name-calling)
- [The Highlanders Medley, or The Duke Triumphant (A Loyal Song)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/highlanders-medley-duke-triumphant-1746/) (Great Britain · 1746 · Name-calling, Transfer)
- [The North Briton, No. XLV, 23 April 1763 (John Wilkes), opening page](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/north-briton-no-45-wilkes-1763/) (Kingdom of Great Britain · Apr 23, 1763 · Name-calling)
- [The Bloody Massacre perpetrated in King Street Boston on March 5th 1770 by a party of the 29th Regt.](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/revere-bloody-massacre-king-street-1770/) (Province of Massachusetts Bay · Mar 1770 · Name-calling, Card stacking). Content note: Hand-coloured engraving of bloodied dead and wounded colonists after soldiers fired on a crowd.
- [Marche du Dom Quichotte moderne pour la deffence du Moulin des Abus (March of the Modern Don Quixote in Defence of the Mill of Abuses)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/dom-quichotte-moulin-des-abus-1791/) (France · 1791 · Name-calling, Transfer)